Crater Lake National Park

by Dez · October 16, 2021

On August 30, we drove from Canyonville to Crater Lake, our first national park of the trip. Mike had been to Crater Lake several times as a kid and young adult, but I had never been.

About Crater Lake for those of you who don’t know much about it: It was a mountain called Mount Mazama and it collapsed thousands of years ago into the large crater there now, which has a lake at the bottom: Crater Lake.

Here is the wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake for more fun facts if you so desire.

August 30 was right in the middle of the fire season that has become too much of a part of the late summer on the west coast. It had been a bit smoky in Canyonville and areas around, but this drive to Crater Lake was the smokiest we had encountered so far. Our plan was this: arrive at the Mazama Campground (right in the park) in the early afternoon, get set up, and go make the 33 mile drive around the lake, making stops to sight see and take pictures.

We did just that, up to the drive around the lake. We started by driving to Rim Village. And, sadly, we discovered that it was way too smoky to even see the lake at all. In these pix, where you see just smoke, is supposed to be where you see the beautiful blue water of the lake.

Ugh.

We talked over our options… do we just make the drive anyway since we are here? Or is it not worth it. We landed on NOT making the drive this evening, but instead getting up early and hoping it was clear enough to see. If we get moving around 7 we should be able to leisurely make the drive, and still get on the road by check out time.

Back at the campsite we had a nice evening… took a couple walks, played some games, and went to bed early.

It was a bit chilly this evening so we brought out ‘Lil Buddy, our propane heater for the first time.

One walk was to a trailhead and down a bit of the trail, but not super far down as we were not prepared for a steep hike! The pix may not show how steep it is, but we tried.

Look at this bad ass on the trail!!

Mike chillin’ with his kitties before bed.

At 6:00 the next morning, got up, got ourselves ready, and went back to the rim drive.

Here was the temp when we headed out… the coldest we’ve experienced on this trip, no doubt.

The choice to try again in the morning was correct as we were rewarded with beautiful views!

Looking away from Crater Lake there were some amazing views as well. This one in particular was a view of some of the Cascade Mountain Range. In the left picture below, Union Peak is the mountain you can see clarest with the sharp point on the top. Mt McLoughlin is the peak you see to the left of Union Peak, and Mt Shasta was also visible, a ways to the left, but it’s hard to see in the picture. It was quite a view to take in, and a surprise to me as I was only expecting to check out the lake that day!

The drive was amazing. We stopped at lots of lookouts. If we had a full day we could easily spend it doing some hiking and more stops, but we felt like we saw quite a bit. We spent about two hours taking the 33 mile drive.

Phantom Shipwreck (the other island in Crater Lake) in the distance

When entering Crater Lake National Park, we bought our annual national park pass there so we can go into any national parks we manage to get to in the next 12 months. The pass is $80, and the fee is $30 for one entry, so making it to just three parks will pay off.

We’re excited to see as many as we can, and if they’re half as great as Crater Lake we will be happy!